divatas

Updated: May 14, 2025

Father Miguel Gomez recently sent us, in a letter, this account of a visit which he made there: "I made inquiries, to learn who had not yet been baptized, and seventy were brought to me, besides some others whom the Bissayans call Daotáñgatao, which signifies, 'People who are good for nothing; these people are wont to reply, when we preach to them the law of God: 'I am good for nothing at being a Christian or learning the prayers. I began to preach to all these people the truths of our holy faith, and the foolishness of their divatas, or idols.

- The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 13 of 55 : 1604-1605 : Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of The Catholic Missions, As Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century